Glasgow Solicitors Blog from The GLP

A Confiscation Order for £4,444 has been made at Edinburgh Sheriff Court against a 25-year-old man serving a prison sentence for drugs offences. A Confiscation Order is an order made by the court following criminal conviction, to pay a fixed sum of money from the proceeds of crime.

A dedicated domestic abuse court is to open in Livingston as part of a new multi-agency pilot to improve how the criminal justice system handles domestic abuse crimes.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Scotland’s sole prosecuting authority, has launched a pilot to text witnesses to remind them to attend court.

Alcohol-fuelled violence is costing lives, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has said as statistics showed 97 people were victims of murder last year, with the vast majority of those accused under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Statistics have been published by the Scottish Government that provide new detail on the scale of religious hate crimes across Scotland.

The first murders for re-investigation by the Crown Office Cold Case Unit (CCU) have been identified from a list of 93 cases on a new ‘Unresolved Homicide Database’. Five deaths with victims aged 20 to 59, and spanning 25 years from 1974 to 1999, have been prioritised for immediate investigation by the police as there are identifiable suspects.

As British Summertime draws to an end, recent research has revealed that when the clocks go back the crime rate goes up.

A man and a woman have been sentenced at the Sheriff Court at Glasgow to 44 months and 18 months imprisonment respectively after pleading guilty to human trafficking, in a contravention of Section 22(1)(a)(i) of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003.

Three new Senior Advocate Deputes responsible for prosecuting serious crimes in Scotland, including sexual offending, serious violence, organised crime and drug trafficking, have been appointed by the Lord Advocate, Frank Mulholland QC.

The latest official crime statistics show that recorded crime fell again last year to its lowest level since 1976.

An overwhelming majority of Scots support stronger action being taken to tackle sectarianism and offensive behaviour associated with football, according to a new poll.

Scotland's Chief Statistician has published Reconviction rates in Scotland 2007-08 and 2008-09 offender cohorts, which show the two year reconviction rate in Scotland has dropped to its lowest level in eleven years.

Scotland's Chief Statistician has published Prison Statistics Scotland 2010-11. This contains information on the Scottish prison population, including daily average population by type of custody and establishment, characteristics of prisoners, and numbers of receptions to / liberations from penal establishments.

Two prosecutors have been appointed as full-time specialists for wildlife and environmental crime, the Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland QC has announced.

The Solicitor General, Lesley Thomson QC, has announced the creation of a team of specialists who will act as Football Liaison Prosecutors (FLPs).

Sheriff Danny Scullion and Dr Linda de Caestecker have been appointed to the Commission on Female Offenders, led by former Lord Advocate Dame Elish Angiolini, to find a more effective way of dealing with women offenders and ultimately reverse the rise in the female prison population.